FPI / January 5, 2025
Geostrategy-Direct
Defense analysts say that two new warplanes seen on Chinese social media sites in late December appear to be communist China’s first sixth-generation stealth fighters.
While the U.S. Defense Department has maintained silence on the fighters, a China analyst pointed to an emerging “air power imbalance.”
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that she had seen the news reports on the fighter jets but declined to comment on the flight tests. A second spokesman said the Defense Department had no comment on Beijing’s development of warplanes beyond the recently published annual report on the Chinese military.
Richard Fisher, an expert on the Chinese military with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said China’s new 60- to 70-ton stealth air dominance fighter has “the potential to threaten U.S. Navy aircraft carrier groups with long-range precision air-launched ballistic missiles.”
Related: China threatens dominance in the Pacific, revealing two 6th generation combat jets, January 1, 2025
The J-36 prototype would likely have a “supercruise” capability to lower fuel consumption while flying at 60,000 feet, allowing it to attack new B-21 stealth bombers with precision-guided PL-17 long-range ballistic air-to-air missiles, said Fisher, a contributing editor for Geostrategy-Direct.com.
Chinese sources say the J-36 will be able to strike U.S. Navy and Air Force fighters defending Taiwan from a PLA invasion at greater distances from Chinese shores than current aircraft, he said.
Fisher said the smaller jet appears designed for use on China’s aircraft carriers.
While China tests new fighter jets for possible production in two or three years, the Biden administration has halted work on the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, leading to a delay of several years, said Fisher.
“This only compounds a dire air power imbalance versus China, which now fields an estimated 300 to 400 of the Chengdu J-20 heavy fifth-generation fighters, while the U.S. Air Force can, in theory, put 120 of its F-22A fighters into the air to meet global deterrence missions,” Fisher said.
The 2010 decision by President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to halt F-22 production at 186 fighters could tempt Chinese leaders to launch a war over Taiwan by 2027, he said.
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